The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for generating alternative descriptions for images.
The Internet and web-based content are a backbone of today's social, commercial, and governmental organizations. As such, the majority of content on the Internet is output to users of client devices via a visual manner, i.e. readable text, viewable images, and the like. While audio information is also provided via the Internet, a vast majority of the information is presented in a visual manner.
Due to the visual nature of this content, it can be inaccessible to visually impaired persons. While text readers are available to audibly output the text of a web page or document, images on a web page or in a document may have no meaning to a visually impaired person if there is no textual description of the image that can be converted to audio output. Thus, large portions of web pages and documents may be inaccessible to visually impaired persons leading to a loss of information to these persons.